It's Later Than You Think And Time is Not Your Friend

Annette's Sacred Heart Window was a labor of love and the end result is breathtaking.   She took her time with this and never settled on 'good enough'.  When things got overwhelming she would walk away and take a break  rather than stress through it which is exactly why this looks as great as is does.  Nice work!

 

Linda began this spooky Halloween Window just a little too late to get it finished in time for Halloween this year but she's all set for next year now that this has been completed and taken home with her.  She says that she's even going to hang it up for a little while before storing it away for next years Halloween.  

 

 

 

Let really knocked it out of the ball park with her Fishbowl Window.  Her attention to detail (the perfectly round fishbowl), her color choices, and even her soldering make this a window that could draw cats in from the streets! What's not to love about this?

 

 

 

A picture doesn't do Melissa's Kaleidoscope justice at all.   From the start she wanted this to bring Northern Lights to mind so she picked a Blue/Aqua/Purple Iridised glass for the side panels that has to be seen to be believed.  When light reflects off of it the resemblance to Northern Lights is uncanny.  As an added accent Melissa cut the profiles of four Evergreen Trees out of sheet foil and then covered them them with solder and added scratches into the lead to make the trees look more realistic.   She attached two per side near the color wheels and again, the photo just doesn't do this justice.  It truly has to be seen in person to be believed.

 

 

 

 

Steve made this lovely pair of Cardinals which he accented with some wire work to give it the shape of a heart.  Everything but the wire work was completed last week and he finished this very quickly while in class this week and then moved along to his next design.

 

 

As we suspected, Cindy's Cat Window certainly looks wonderful even though it doesn't sport a border.   She tried many different color combinations but we just couldn't agree on what it needed.  Normally you need a border to frame things but the curtains do that all on their own in this case.   Of course the final reason we like to add a border is to give us a place to attach hooks to and again, the curtains came through and provided us nearly equal spacing for hooks on both sides of this stunning window.

 

 

 

I forgot to post this last week but here we are better late than never with Steve's rendition of Mother Mary with Baby Jesus.  You'll note that there isn't a border on this either and that's because Steve didn't want the distraction of a border on a piece that wasn't going to be hung in a window but rather displayed as a table piece on a stand.

 

 

 

Mary Grace put the finishing solder bead on both sides of her Mardi Gras Mask window and ended up walking out the door with this eye catching window that's rich with color.  The pure black border helps to  accentuate the mask's bold colors by framing it without competing with it.  

 

 

 

When Lisa's circular Fox was tacked together we realized that we had to make a slight change to the pattern.  The original design had the background cut into numerous pieces that Lisa found distracting.   By removing the superfluous lines Lisa's Fox became the driving force of the window.  However, when we went to add hooks to it we realized that without a border there was no safe  place to attach the hook on the right side where it wouldn't just pull free in time.  Our solution?  A simple thin border was added which provided a place to attach a hook yet still be thin enough to allow the fox's ear to poke out from with his frame as Lisa very much wanted.

June wrapped up the work on her Goat Window and we all agreed that his pure blue eyes are the color that makes this window stand out.   I don't know if real goats have blue eyes or not but after seeing this I have to say that I sure hope they do!

 

 

 

Cindy was certainly busy as can be this week as she was able to complete a Grinch Hand, a Cross, a small Cross Pendant suncatcher, as well as a Geometric Suncatcher made from assorted clear textures.   She nearly completed a pair of Christmas Bells as well which we will surely see when she returns next week.

 

 

 

By now you know that when you see a completed Address Window it will most likely have been made by Lorrie.   This is her fifth in a series of seven Windows which means that  she only has two more left to go!  You've got to love how she manages to match the border to the colors she uses in the numbers without actually repeating the same color.

 

Our last completed project reveals that Betty finished the remainder of her Grinch Hand Suncatchers.   There were four altogether and they all matched each other perfectly (as they should).  I'll bet that Betty can make these with her eyes closed by now.

 

Betty has wanted to make this Modern Nativity Scene for some time now but other stained glass obligations (Grinch Hands, etc) managed to come before it.   Now that she's all caught up she's turned her focus to this inspiring mid sized suncatcher.   Wrapping it in 1/4 foil will give it thicker lead lines to give it an old fashioned stained glass look which is exactly what drew her to this pattern in the first place

 

 

 

Once her Fish Bowl Window completed Let moved on over to the grinder where she began grinding the pieces that she had already cut out for a Cardinal Cross Suncatcher.  With this already being almost completely ground I believe it won't be long before Let needs another pattern to make!

 

  

 

 

Now that Kandise has cut all of the pieces of glass for her pair of Corner Accents she's spent her night working on the grinder to get everything fitting together nicely.  She's moving along at a nice steady pace here and I think she'll be ready to start foiling her first corner piece after her next class.  

 

 

 

 

Sheri's got all of her Koi Fish cut out and is also working at the grinder.  There's a lot to grind here so Sheri will be working on this at home as well as in the shop.  When you're working on a window this size it certainly goes quicker if you can work on things between classes. 

 

  

 

Kerry Soldered his Swedish Chef window this week and even got the back side of it finished.  With just soldering touch ups remaining I'd say that this will be among our completed windows in our next post.  And that's a fact!

 

 

 

Lara is grinding away at one of her Stack of Books with Flowers and had to sort through the pieces that she'd already cut and stored in zip lock bags to put this one 'together'.  She's left this pinned into place on top of her grinding board because once you begin grinding it's best not to remove the pins that hold things together.   For some unexplained reason they never quite go back together again once they've been shuffled about.

 

 

 

The end is drawing near for Susan R's Peacock in a Hoop.  There are numerous tail feathers left to go but she's taking her time and making sure that nothing gets mixed up or put out of place because when it comes to tiny pieces, that could be disastrous.  And this is anything but disastrous!

  

 

 

With all of her background pieces cut, ground and tacked together Barbara was able to concentrate on her double borders.   She cut the first thinner border out of a heavily textured clear glass to help separate the background from the final border which will be cut from the same baroque glass that her background was cut from.   It may be hard to see but both borders have been cut and she only needs to wrap and tack the final border to her Magnolia Window before she can begin soldering this on both the front and the back sides.

  

 

This may look familiar but rest assured that Martha's version of a Cat In A Window is different from Cindy's.  In fact, the only thing similar (beyond the theme) are the curtains which were cut from the same sheet of glass that Cindy used.  Martha's Cat may not be as colorful as the one Cindy made but Martha added a plant to her window to make sure that the piece count remained about the same.

 

 

In the weeks to come, when we see Egg Cartons we will surely think of MiMi.   She's almost got all of her second color (light green) cut out and is now using a total of six 18 count egg cartons to contain all of the pieces that she's cut out so far.  There will be more though-- far many more in fact!

 

 

 

Judy just needs to wrap her border pieces and then she'll be able to begin soldering  her Grinch.   Before she cut the border pieces she finished wrapping the bottom pieces of the his face and now you can clearly see that we are dealing with someone whose brain is full of spiders and has garlic in his soul!

 

  

 

Susan D's officially got all of her Eagle Suncatcher ground which means that it is ready for foil.   Her Crow in the upper left corner has already been foiled so that should be completed upon her return.  There are a lot of feathers in the Eagle though so that won't be ready to solder for another week or so.

 

 

 

With all of the missing pieces (save for Joseph's hand and two or three tiny background pieces) cut and ground Ann is just about ready to get her border cut out.  Before that happens she'll have to square off those two upper corners by adding triangular corner pieces.  It's a very simple process with the hardest part being deciding on what color to make them!

 

  

 

And to finish things off we take a look at Lorrie's sixth Address Window which has been all cut out and is currently being ground.  But surprise, surprise!  Look closely and you'll see that she also has the flower for her newest Invitation box all tacked together and awaiting its background glass to be cut out.

  

 

 

And there you have it.  One EXTREMELY productive week!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

But I Always Feel Creative...

Annette has decided to make about 20 Christmas Ornament Suncatchers in three different styles.  Each has a Bible Scripture (Psalm 139 23-24) that has been permanently fired onto the glass.  These are her first four and  I have to say that her idea to add bows to each ornament was a stroke of genius.  

 

 

 

Lisa's Cool Mountains Circular Suncatcher features iridescent stars and a dark, dark purple sky.  The black patina helps hide the lead lines in the finished piece which actually makes the stars appear to hang in the air.

 

 

Betty got six of her Grinch Hands with Ornaments completed this week and still has a few more to finish off.  We'll probably be seeing a lot of these now that Christmas is less than seven weeks away!

Although Lorrie is making seven Address Windows it isn't as easy as cutting out the same pieces seven times since all of the street numbers are different.   That means that there's more work to these than you would normally expect but she's still making these at a super fast rate of two per week.   Here are numbers 702 and 227!

Steve got his male and female Cardinals finished before class ended but was unable to get to the wire work that surrounds these two love birds into a heart.  I guess we know what Steve will be doing when he comes back into class.

 

 

 

Kandise has almost all of  her Window Corner Accents cut out and ready to be ground.   Since the pair are mirror images she was able to simply cut double the amount of pieces of glass since they are mostly symmetrical and can be flipped in either direction.   The only minor problems are the two pieces on the left of the pattern which need to be cut out independently since they can't be reversed.   I have found that mirror images can really mess with your head, but Kandise is certainly on the right track here.

 

  

 

 

Kerry is back!   We haven't seen his Swedish Chef in a while now but  here he is with all of his glass cut and attached.  Since this sat so long he had to take some time to re-melt all of the lead so that a smooth solder bead could be applied on top of the old lead.   There's nothing worse than trying to solder on top of old solder.   By melting all of the old lead Kerry now has a nice clean 'palette' to solder on.

 

  

 

Melissa's Kaleidoscope has been assembled and she's decided to use Scalloped Foil on this project. I was unsure on how easily since this is a 3D project but it soldered beautifully-- perhaps even easier than plain foil! Next week she'll add the legs and an axle to support the color wheels as well as some silhouettes of trees to give this Kaleidoscope a Northern Lights theme. Also in the picture below is a quick look through the mirrors that will go inside of this kaleidoscope.

 

 

 

With her borders cut for her Spooky Halloween Tree Window Linda will begin soldering this before you know it.  She plans on hanging this up as soon as it is finished and says that she just doesn't care if Halloween 2024 is already behind us-- she's going to enjoy all the work she put into this now!

 

  

 

Here's the next number in Lorrie's address windows as well as a look at the flower that will go in the next Wedding Invitation Box that she began this week. At this rate EVERYONE will be inviting her to weddings just to get a box!

 

  

 

 

Martha's Cat Window is nearly complete needing only a few pieces of the Cat left to be cut.  She'll easily handle that next week and possibly begin wrapping this as well.  It won't be long now.

 

 

 

Lisa's Fox got its background cut out and everything has been tacked together.   The original design calls for a hook to be mounted on the right of the circle but that's honestly going to break off  eventually.  What Lisa will do to prevent this is to tack a wire around the outside edge of the circle that will distribute the weight that the hook has to bear around most of the perimeter.  There's always a solution.

 

  

 

With everything tacked together Barbara was able piece together a background using baroque glass. The person she is making this for also wanted a baroque border but since it always looks odd to match the border to the background Barbara has decided to go with a double border using a thin inner border of a different glass to help offset the return to baroque for the last border.

 

  

 

Jan finished grinding her her Sunburst window but one of the pieces just came up a little too short to use.   She's going to tack this together and then replace the piece by tracing along the opening for a perfect cut and grind on the first pass.  Also, she has yet to decide on a color for one of the smallest pieces in this so that will be handled upon her return as well.

 

  

 

 

Let's Fishbowl Window is almost completed now that she has a border attached to it.  She also added a brass channel as well and then finished soldering the front side.  I have no doubt that the back will have been soldered when she brings this back in because Let does NOT remain still!

 

 

 

Cheryl is back in action and she's wrapping the pieces that she cut for her Harley Davidson Window.  This will allow her to tack together what she's cut and prevent any of the pieces from sliding around or getting lost.    It will also show us in a very clear manner exactly what still needs to be cut and what has already been done.   Organization is paramount to building a window of this complexity.

  

 

 

Ann has a few fill in pieces left to go for her Nativity Scene and she's added a Halo that was missing from Joseph's Head to the pattern as well.  Before she cuts those missing pieces she's going to tack together what she has cut and ground and then make new patterns for the remaining pieces.   

 

 

Here we see that there are more egg cartons under MiMi's belt which means that she's consistently cutting out pieces three at a time.  She has all of 'color number 2' traced out onto glass and about a third of it cut out already.  This Louis XV  Lamp is going to turn heads for sure.

 

  

 

 

Judy resumed work on her Grinch Window and after she finished grinding the few pieces that were left over from last week she began foiling her green meany!  It still looks like he doesn't have a mouth but he certainly does and it will be VERY apparent when you see this again next week. 

 

 

 

Cindy's version of her Cat window is so very close to completion.   All it needs is some solder on the back side and then it will be ready to hang.  In the end we decided to forgo  a border.  The curtains gave us a place to hang the window from after it got a channel attached.  Martha will do the same with hers.   Also in the picture is the start of Cindy's next Holly Heart. 

 

 

 

And we're wrapping things up here by looking at the next three Grinch Hands that Betty will indubitably complete upon her return.

 

 

So long, and thanks for all the shrimp!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Here We Go

Lorrie's first pair of Address Windows have been completed and as usual she's done a stellar job on them.  Even her soldering required no touching up at all on my end.  I do believe she's got this stained glass thing down pat already!

 

 

Annette came in with this stunning Trumpeting Angel all finished save for hooks. She also decided to make the trumpet in lead-encased glass which may not photograph well but certainly adds an incredible amount of tasteful 'bling' to the this heavenly lady.  Iridescent wings then seal the deal.

Three more Kitty Cats have been completed and you know that if there are more than one of a particular item being made then it's probably Betty who has made them.  And in this case you'd be correct!

 

 

 

Kandise has begun cutting two corner pieces for her large kitchen window.  They will reside in the upper left and upper right of the window above her kitchen sink.  What you see below may very well be all of the color that she uses as I'm pretty sure that the rest of the cutting will involve assorted clear textures.

 

  

 

Let's Fishbowl Window has come together beautifully and it isn't even finished yet!  The only thing left to cut is a border and Let is still undecided as to what that might be but when she comes back in we will run the gambit with all sorts of colors and textures to settle on the one that does this complete justice.  Anything less would be a shame.

 

  

 

 

Linda F's spooky Halloween Window is missing only five pieces here but the idea of the design comes through loud and clear.   I really have to commend her on the owl that she cut, ground, and foiled because it consists of 14 pieces packed within a space less than 2 inches tall by an inch wide.  All that work has paid off though as he, the pumpkin and the bat each look stunning.

 

  

 

 

Steve's latest Virgin Mary and child Panel was inspired by a painting that he found online.    He traced it out and made a few changes so that it could be cut out in glass and ended up with what you see below.  Yes, it's crude at this point but it's all cut and only needs to be ground for you to see the details that make this a classic window.

  

 

 

Two-for Betty has certainly stepped up her game of late.  This week we all called her eight-for Betty because she walked in the door with eight Grinch Hands all cut out just waiting to be ground.   She said that she doesn't want the ornaments on these to be attached permanently so we are just going to have a hanging chain attached to the fingers and then she can use a standard Christmas Ornament hanger to thread through the last link of chain which will then attach to the ornament.  No a problem it all.

 

 

 

Here's another Grinch project that's well underway by Judy.  This one may not have any hands in it but Mr Grinch's face is easily recognizable.  Right now his nose and mouth look like just a green glob of glass but once this is foiled and leaded all of the details will become readily apparent.  His scowling eyes are pretty recognizable though!

 

  

 

 

 Next up we have two similar but different Cat Window that both Cindy and Martha are making for the same person.  This one features a calico cat looking out of a window with yellow curtains with just a hint or orange accent color running through them.

 

 

The second Cat Window features a black cat and since the cat was so much easier to cut and grind than the one that Cindy made, Martha decided to add a plant to hers as well as changing the overall profile of the cat.  The curtains though are still that stunning yellow with orange highlights.

  

 

Bee's Dandelion Window is rapidly coming together and she's beginning to think about what color green she wants for the dandelion leaves.  Once that's been cut there will only be the cross within the sun left to go.

  

 

 

MiMi has all of one of her twelve colors cut out for her Louis XV Lamp and is about to decide on which color to cut out next when she comes back in.  The egg carton trick is working wonderfully and it's looking like MiMi is going to have quite the collection of cartons filled with quite the collection of little pieces!

  

 

 

June's Goat Window has had its front side soldered which means that she'll be finishing this up when she returns.  The next time you see this guy he's going to be all set for his closeup!

 

 

 

Barbara is now foiling all of her pieces that make up her Magnolia Window and got the top flower completed this week.   Once everything has been foiled and tacked together she'll tackle the few background pieces and then begin thinking about what color she's going to want for a border.

  

 

 

Ann has all of her Nativity Scene Window ground but she's discovered that perhaps it was a good thing that the piece of earth at the bottom of the scene broke.  Why? Because she had cut it out of the same glass that she used to make Joseph's staff and the common glass between the two different items just looks off.  She's found a much darker brown for the ground and will cut that when she comes back in and then get to work on foiling all of these pieces.

  

 

 

Lorrie's newest pair of Street Address Windows are well under way and only need a border and a little more solder to finish both of them off.  She needs seven of these completed before Christmas but I never had any doubt that she would cut her timeline close at all.   Lorrie is really enjoying making stained glass and works long but fun hours while at home on her projects.

 

 

 

 

Susan D started another small Crow this week and got even more of her eagle suncatcher ground.  Then, since she was feeling 'playful' she also changed the pin near the eye to yellow and even added a black pupil to it!  It's hard to see in the picture below but trust me-- it's there!

  

 

 

I am really loving this Fox that Lisa is working on.  The orange part of the tail that literally points into the white tip is the kind of cut the shows up in patterns here and there and bothers students when I tell them that the actual pointed ends of the glass have to be blunted.  Yes, you can cut them out on a glass saw but you run the risk if the sharp indented point breaking when the heat from a soldering iron touches it.  Look at this closely and you'll see that the blunt points do NOT detract at all.

 

 

 

And just like that Susan R has begun foiling all of the pieces for her Peacock Hoop.  She's working from the top down so currently the head and the body are 'under construction'.   I've thought about it a bit and I believe that I've come up with a great way to make sure that the peacock's head dress stays secure without messy wire supports marring the back side.  We'll get into that when the time come though.

 

 

 

Mary Grace began  soldering her Mardi Gras Mask Panel after she got her black border cut, ground, wrapped and attached.  With most of the front side finished I'm thinking that she'll wrap this up upon her return.

 

 

 

Cindy's sister dropped by for a visit and loved Cindy's Holly Heart Suncatcher so much that she took it along home with her.  So here we see that Cindy is starting a second one since she really believes it will sell at the shop where she usually plies her wares. 

  

 

Shelley was looking through one of the pattern drawers and happened on this design of three women walking away from the 'camera' (otherwise known as a posterior shot).  She 's decided that this will be a family portrait of sorts and has altered the hair on two of the women to more punctiliously match the family members that they will each represent.

 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks